With increasing frequency, flowable materials are being supplied in disposable dispenser tubes. Examples thereof include the supply, in disposable dispenser tubes, of such materials as cake frostings and other food mixes. In the area of commercial and institutional food preparation, there has been an even greater tendency to supply flowable food materials in disposable dispenser tubes. In part, this packaging trend has been reinforced by the growth of so-called fast food franchises. In the operation of such businesses, it is particularly important to supply flowable food materials in tubes which not only are disposable and perform a dispensing function but which, in addition, will insure that a reasonably constant amount of material is metered or applied each time the material is dispensed. A dispenser tube which meets these requirements is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,396.
Although it is desirable to provide certain flowable food materials in disposable tubes, a number of problems are encountered when it is attempted to construct an apparatus for producing such tubes. For example, because vast quantities of such tubes must be supplied, a machine for producing such tubes must operate at a high production rate. Additionally, in order to minimize the manufacturing cost per tube, the machine must be particularly reliable and desirably should occupy a minimum amount of floor space. The apparatus and method which comprises my invention meets these criteria and thereby allows the low cost, high volume production of a filled dispenser tube of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,396.